HomoQuotable - Steve Friess

"[G]ay activists are as responsible as anyone for the fact that a large swath of Americans who thought they were OK with gays are finding themselves surprised by their own reactions to what they’re starting to see [on television]. This is, after all, a civil rights movement that aggressively worked for many years to downplay the mechanics of gay sexual behavior. [snip] This is how the fights over the integration of the military and legalized same-sex marriage were won. Every time anti-gay forces tried to gross out the nation by referencing the gritty details of, say, anal sex, gay advocates would reply by accusing them of being secretly titillated by and obsessed with it. Whenever some crusty old military hack would grouse about gays being naked in showers or barracks with straight soldiers, gay activists did everything they could to insist gay people are supernaturally capable of stifling every fleeting sexual thought even when something attractive is before them." - Steve Friess, in a Time Magazine essay on the "preposterousness" of some reactions to comments made by Billy Crystal. Hit the link for more.

Billy Crystal Clarifies Gay Sex Remark

Via the Hollywood Reporter:

Billy Crystal clarified remarks he made Sunday at the Television Critics Association's winter press tour that have been taken out of context. The actor, who appeared during a panel to support FX's upcoming half-hour series The Comedians, made pointed remarks during his time in front of the press about the current state of sex on television. Crystal, who played one of the first openly gay characters on primetime television in Soap, was asked if playing gay was difficult for him at the time as well as his thoughts on what has happened to television in the years since.

"I've seen some stuff recently on TV in different kinds of shows where the language or the explicit sex is really, you know, sometimes I get it, and sometimes I just feel like, 'Ah, that’s too much for me.'… Sometimes it’s just pushed a little too far for my tastes, and I’m not going to get into which ones they are." After some outlets blasted the comedian for his remarks — which, out of context, could appear antigay — The Hollywood Reporter asked Crystal to clarify his comments. "What I meant was that whenever sex or graphic nudity of any kind (gay or straight) is gratuitous to the plot or story it becomes a little too much for my taste," he told THR in a statement.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that none of the 200 members of the media in attendance at the press conference asked Crystal a follow-up question about the initial comment or sought clarification in subsequent interviews.

Billy Crystal Doesn't Want Gay Sex Scenes On Television Shoved In His Face

Via Entertainment Tonight:

Billy Crystal blazed trails in the 1970s by playing Jodie Dallas on Soap, the first openly gay character to regularly appear on a network television show. These days, however, the 66-year-old funnyman thinks that TV"s depiction of homosexuality has come a long way — perhaps even too far. Speaking to journalists at the TV Critics Association press tour on Sunday, Billy recalled the controversy of playing a gay man on television. "I did it in front of a live audience," recalls Billy of Soap, "and there were times where I would say to [the actor who played his boyfriend], 'Bob, “I love you,' and the audience would laugh nervously, because, you know, it’s a long time ago, that I’d feel this anger. I wanted to stop the tape and go, 'What is your problem?' Because it made you sort of very self-conscious about what we were trying to do then. And now it’s just, I see it and I just hope people don’t abuse it and shove it in our face — well, that sounds terrible — to the point of it just feels like an everyday kind of thing."